Left for the Crows
by AppleL0V3R
Summary: One-shot Collection. In the dark, Itachi knows one thing. Everything he has ever done, everything he has ever been, was always about Sasuke. In the dark, he wants it to be enough. Itachi-centric. A character study.


**Title:** Antebellum

 **Author:** AppleL0V3R

 **Beta-reader:** SymphoniaFreak

 **Fandom:** Naruto

 **Character:** Uchiha Itachi

 **Other Characters:** (mentions of) Uchiha Sasuke

 **Theme:** Always

 **Summary:** In the dark, Itachi knows one thing. Everything he has ever done, everything he has ever been, was always about Sasuke. In the dark, he wants it to be enough.

 **Word Count:** 593

 **Rating:** T

 **Type:** One-shot Collection – Complete

 **Genre:** Family, General, Tragedy, Character study

 **Warnings:** Character Death (Canon), Violence, Suicidal thoughts

 **Disclaimer:** If you've heard of it before, then it's obviously not mine.

 **Started:** May 21, 2016

 **Completed:** June 16, 2016

 **Last Edited:** September 7, 2016

 **Note:** alterations or continuations maybe be made to this at a later date.

* * *

There isn't a day that goes by that Uchiha Itachi does not regret killing his own family. If he could, he would turn the hands of time back in a heartbeat and find another way. It leaves him hating himself, for being able to carry out the deed, for torturing himself because he could. He goes back and forth in his mind, but he knows in the end, he's already set up the most fitting end possible to such a horrible beginning. After all, he is the villain who was heartless enough to kill his own flesh and blood and then make his own precious little brother relive it again and again. And so his little brother will become strong with hate and anger and sorrow, driven to kill his cruel brother to gain peace of mind and in doing so become the hero.

For all the misfortune, this is the only way to end what Itachi could not find a way to change.

There is a part of him that knows that even this sort of closure is not fair to Sasuke, that pushing and antagonizing him until his brother kills Itachi is still harmful to the teenager. But it has to be this way. This is the best option; he almost cracks a small smile at the idea, because really, it is more like the least worst option.

Assuming the illness and the blindness and Madara don't get to Itachi first.

At the age of twenty-one, Itachi feels old. Tired and world weary in a way that he never believed he would. Life has taken its toll on him, breaking him down piece by piece until he has nothing but skeletons and regrets to show for it. Twenty-one and he is already on borrowed time, running out faster than he could pour fake sand in the glass. But he has to try. Because he is not done with this life yet. Not until Sasuke gets some measure of peace, and Itachi knows that the one thing, the one person, he has given so much for has the best shot Itachi can give him.

In the dark of the old ancestral grounds, Itachi resigns himself to waiting. He knows Sasuke is bright enough, willful enough, to figure out how to find Itachi and will be on his way now. And when he finally arrives, Itachi will be able to begin his end game. It will be the nail in the coffin, almost literally, for him.

His black eyes close briefly as the knowledge that the end, his end, is indeed nigh washes over him. It settles in, and he realizes that it does not at all feel like he thought it might.

It feels dark and cold and lonely.

It feels like giving up and frustration.

He hopes that once everything has been said and done he'll feel an ounce of peace. But he does not bet on it.

After all, for his entire life, nothing has ever been about him and how he feels. At least he will be able to choose how this affects Sasuke. He hopes that it goes the way he intends.

Eyes still closed, he can faintly sense Sasuke and three others in the distance, tangling with Kisame's own wealth of chakra.

It is almost time.

And in the back of his mind, the depths of his heart, he knows. But still he clings to the only futile hope he has ever bothered to reach for. Because this has to work. He has to make this work.


End file.
